blunt essays with sharp points

by Scrvpvlvs
Jul 24, 2012 11:58 AM–She was fading now, she knew. She was a little bowed over, her spangled skirt had developed creases, her powder had begun to cake up. But, oh, how the others had fought for her attention! Well, her boys were prone to hyperbole, and she was not sure how to credit their stories. She herself had met none of her lovers. But her boys had told her there were none to rival her.

He lay still beneath her, waiting. He remembered the three times before. Wordlessly she had sprung up out of the cold and the wet, dropped one garment after another, curled up near him, and then blown away. He yearned to stab into her, hold her close, he whose strength had once bound trees together. But now he was wasting away, too weak to hang on to anything.

This blog post is a writing exercise from writers.stackexchange.com. Visit the Writers chat room every Tuesday for new writing exercises. This week’s exercise: A short story with 2 paragraphs, no dialogue, containing a rusty nail, a tulip, and the word “spangled”.

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. —Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sometimes they fool you by walking upright.

What part of “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn” don’t you understand?

Build a man a fire, and he’ll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life. —Terry Pratchett

Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig. —Robert Heinlein

Do not ask why the past was better than the present, for this is not a question prompted by wisdom. —Ecclesiastes 7:10

Power lines abruptly stopped causing cancer in 1997 after the U.S. National Cancer Institute conducted a better study. —Robert Parks

Встретимся под столом! (Vstretimsja pod stolom: To meeting you under the table!)

The more you cry, the less you’ll pee.
Relish the love of a good woman.
It’ll never get better if you keep picking at it. —advice from Judge “Maximum” Bob Gibbs